A STRATEGY FOR A CLEANER TRANSPORT FUTURE - MONDAY, 1 APRIL 2019

31 March 2019

A Shorten Labor Government will work with Australia’s transport sector to cut vehicle emissions, boost adoption of electric vehicles and help Australians save on their petrol bills.

Australia needs real action on climate change – not the chaos and division of the Liberals. And real action on climate change means a plan to reduce pollution in the transport sector while saving money for motorists.

Transport emissions make up almost 20 per cent of Australia’s emissions and are a fast growing source of pollution

Cleaner cars and transport aren’t just good for the environment – they are cheaper to run. But Australia lags behind our competitor countries, whether it’s in electric vehicle take-up, or vehicle fuel efficiency. We have ten times lower electric vehicle take-up than the global average, and we’re at risk of being left behind.

That’s why Labor will introduce Australia’s first National Electric Vehicle (EV) policy – building the local industry, generating more local jobs, and helping consumers make the switch.

Labor’s strategy will include:

A national electric vehicle target of 50 per cent new car sales by 2030 - The global transition to electric vehicles is well underway, but the Liberals’ failure to deliver credible climate change and electric vehicle policies means Australia is now last among western counties for electric vehicle uptake. Incredibly, New Zealand has more electric vehicles than Australia. Setting a national target will deliver more affordable electric vehicles into the Australian market and drive the switch to electric vehicles, reducing their cost, create thousands of jobs and cutting pollution.

Set a government electric vehicle target of 50 per cent of new purchases and leases of passenger vehicles by 2025 - This government fleet target will send a strong signal to the global industry that we expect cost competitive vehicles to be available for the Australian market. Government electric vehicle fleets will also be important in developing a second hand market. Labor will work towards requiring all Commonwealth‑owned-and-leased office buildings to include the provision of charging infrastructure where appropriate.

Growing private electric vehicle fleets: Labor will allow businesses an upfront tax deduction to purchase electric vehicles for business purposes, as part of Labor’s announced Australian Investment Guarantee. We will allow business to immediately deduct 20 per cent depreciation for EV vehicles valued at more than $20,000 as part of private fleets

Regulatory reforms and COAG agenda: Labor will establish an electric vehicle COAG agenda to improve coordination of electric vehicle take-up and related infrastructure planning. Labor will also require all federally-funded road upgrades to incorporate electric vehicle charging infrastructure, work with states to ensure new and refurbished commercial and residential developments include electric vehicle charging capacity, promote national standards for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and ensure investment in public charging stations meet these standards.

As part of our focus on cleaner and cheaper transportation, Labor will also work with industry to introduce vehicle emissions standards, to save Australian motorists hundreds of dollars each year at the bowser while driving down pollution on our roads.

Australia is now one of the only developed nations without vehicle emissions standards in place. As a result, motorists will pay as much as $500 each year more at the bowser than they should be, as well as seeing pollution on our roads sky-rocket.

Labor will consult on the timeline and coverage of vehicle emission standards to ensure consumers are made significantly better off, and aim to phase-in standards of 105g CO2/km for light vehicles, which is consistent with Climate Change Authority advice.

These are sensible standards which will bring Australia’s cars into line with those in the US, which has a similar car fleet to ours, but won’t be as stringent as those operating in the EU.

These standards will be applied to car retailers to meet average emissions standards, rather than imposing blanket mandatory standards on manufacturers. This will allow retailers to meet the standards by offsetting high emissions car sales with low or zero emissions car sales – such as electric vehicles.

In addition, Labor will also develop a Low Emission Transport Strategy to inform future policy development across transport more broadly, including maritime, aviation, rail and heavy vehicles. We’ll develop a Bioenergy Strategy, that will see more clean fuels on our roads and more jobs on our regions. These policies will be complemented by our already announced Hydrogen Plan.

Labor also has an electric vehicle innovation and manufacturing strategy and will work with industry to create new job opportunities with the transition.

After six years of chaos, uncertainty and rising pollution under the Liberals, Australians need stability and certainty on climate change policy – that’s what our plan delivers.

A Shorten Labor Government will reduce pollution, invest in renewable energy and take real action on climate change – to ensure we hand on a better deal to the next generation.